The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees is poised to approve a $1.18 billion budget that includes a 6.5 percent tuition increase, more faculty and boosts financial aid and enrollment.

The trustees are expected to vote Wednesday on a proposed budget for the next academic year that is 4.6 percent higher than this year's and includes money to hire 61 new faculty — nine fewer than in previous projections.

The new budget also includes $6.3 million more in university-funded financial aid — a total of $91.9 million — and is based on an increase of 400 students to almost 23,000 undergraduates.

Although the number of faculty hired is slightly less than expected, UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said that the university is still on schedule to meet its four-year plan to boost the number of faculty by 293 by 2016. The $40 million plan is supported by steady increases in tuition.

As expected, next year's budget includes a tuition increase of 6.5 percent. That amounts to an increase of $602 for in-state tuition, going from $9,256 to $9,858.

The total cost for in-state students, including room, board and tuition, will come to $24,518 next year — up 4.3 percent. For out-of-state students, the cost will be $44,698 — up 5.3 percent from this year.

The tuition hike is in keeping with a four-year schedule of previously approved increases that the trustees approved to start in the 2012-13 academic year.

Next year's budget is also helped by a $26 million increase in state funding to $228.3 million. Reitz said that figure includes $15 million for the university's $1.5 billion Next Generation Connecticut initiative — a decadelong plan to strengthen science and technology and boost enrollment.

Thirty-five of the new faculty positions next year will be in science, technology, engineering or math.

During the current fiscal year, the university has faced serious financial constraints. Reitz said the situation has eased a bit since March when UConn officials said they expected to dip into the reserve fund for $30.9 million to close the year's budget gap. That figure is now down to $25 million, Reitz said.

"The university asked the departments to do some trims and cuts to help address areas where they could be more lean," Reitz said.

She said that using the reserve is "definitely something we wished we did not have to do," but she said it was "less than the worst-case scenario." Reitz said "a great deal of belt-tightening went into crafting" next year's budget and that will help the university avoid using reserve funds next year.

The budget documents forecast $69.4 million in reserves for the end of fiscal 2013-14 and $68.7 million for next year.